César Baldaccini (1 January 1921 in Marseille - 6 December 1998 in Paris), usually called César was a noted French sculptor.

César was at the forefront of the Nouveau Réalisme movement with his radical compressions (compacted automobiles, discarded metal, or rubbish), expansions (polyurethane foam sculptures), and fantastic representations of animals and insects.

He was a French sculptor, born in 1921 of Italian parents in the working-class neighbourhood of la Belle-de-Mai in Marseilles. His father was a cooper and bar owner. His full name was César Baldaccini, but he is usually known simply as César. After studying at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Marseilles (1935-9) he went on to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1943-8). He began making sculptures by welding together pieces of scrap metal in 1952 and first made his reputation with solid welded sculptures of insects, various kinds of animals, nudes, etc.

His first one-man exhibition was at the Galerie Lucien Durand, Paris, 1954.

His early work used soldered and welded metal as well as junk materials, and by 1960 César was considered one of France's leading sculptors. In tha ...